Now Sit Right Back And You'll Hear a Tale
by Benji The Vampire Confuser
Summary: Crossover with Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Former Principal Robin Wood is among the survivors of the ill fated flight.
1. Default Chapter

**Now Sit Right Back And You'll Hear a Tale**

**Part of the Omniverse Project**

**By Benji: the Vampire Confuser**

_Based on Characters and Situations created by Joss Whedon, and J.J. Abrams._

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Excuse me!" a voice called, waking Wood from his doze. A blond young man darted up the aisle past his seat, the flight attendants hurrying after him.

He checked his watch, still a few hours till their destination. He looked at the file again. Nothing particularly interesting about this slayer. Obviously Giles wasn't expecting any trouble. If he was, likely he would have sent someone with him. Not that anyone thought he wasn't capable, but with no shortage of Slayers, they always sent back up if any complications were expected.

He looked to his right, wishing Faith had come with him. She'd no doubt be able to liven up a long boring flight.

With a ding, the fasten seatbelts sign turned on, as the plane hit some minor turbulence. Good thing Buffy wasn't here, what with her newly discovered fear o flying. He grinned at the memory of the usually unflappable Slayer, eyes clenched shut in terror. He chuckled. And the bottom dropped out of the world. Anything and anyone not firmly secured, hit the ceiling and went flying. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling as the plane shook. Fighting to remain calm, Robin grabbed the mask, and tried, as they were instructed at the beginning of the flight, to breathe normally. A horrible wrenching sound from the tail heralded disaster.

_I don't believe it,_ he thought. _I survive who knows ho many Vampire attacks, and a fight with the first evil, and this is how I die? A freakin' plane crash?_

* * *

First he heard screams. Then he felt the seat beneath him, and the sun on his face. He opened his eyes to chaos. Survivors were wandering aimlessly, or sitting in shock, or simply screaming. He tried to sit up, but he was stuck. Looking down, he saw with a bit of amusement, that his seatbelt was still fastened. Something exploded as he undid the fastening, and he rolled off onto the sand, barely dodging the flaming remains of the engine that slammed down right where he'd been, scant seconds ago.

"Jesus!" an accented voice cried, and he stood shakily. A hand steadied him and a young man in a hooded sweatshirt asked; "You okay?"

He immediately recognized the voice as that which had exclaimed earlier and then realized that this was the same young man who'd pelted past him on the plane.

"Yeah," he said, still recovering, "Yeah I'm okay."

He wandered off, barely distinguishable from most of the others, milling about in a state of semi awareness.

Someone was muttering Gorge Carlin's airline safety lecture routine. An Asian man was screaming frantically in another language. A man in a suit was dashing from one crisis to another hollering instructions. Wood barely took notice of any of them.

His feet were wet. He looked down, and realized he'd wandered into the surf. And like waking from a daydream, he saw his surroundings. If not for the plane wreck, the beach could be described as idyllic.

A child was crying. The school administrator in him took over, and he searched, soon locating a boy, maybe about nine or ten, huddled in the shadows of the wreck.

"Hey," Wood said gently, dropping to his knees in front of him, "You alright?"

The boy looked up, immediately swallowing his tears and putting on a brave face. Wood was reminded of himself at that age, soon after his mother had been killed.

"I can't find my dog. Or my dad."

"What's your name?"

"Walt."

"Pleased to meet you Walt, I'm Robin-"

"Like Batman's sidekick?"

"Well I'm pretty sure my mom had the bird in mind, but that'll work. Now Walt, maybe I can help find your dad. What's he look like?"

"A little like you," Walt said, "Except he has hair."

"Right." He stood, and Walt followed him into the slowly quieting chaos. The man in the suit was gone, the Asian man had found who Wood assumed was his wife. A middle eastern man was gathering wood.

And there was a man calling out Walt's name.

"Well that was easy."

* * *

As night fell, Wood sat in front of a fire with an older black woman, and a few others. No one was really saying anything, but one young man, wearing miraculously intact glasses was singing the Gilligan's island theme to himself.

The quiet was shattered by a noise from the jungle. Something very large was moving through the trees at the edge of the beach.

"Did everybody see that?" a pregnant woman with an Australian accent asked fearfully, as several trees shook violently, and some even fell, knocked aside by whatever was stalking the tree line.

Wood rose to his feet and quickly found a piece of metal making a makeshift machete. He found himself standing by the suited man, who'd turned out to be a doctor, another young woman, and the blond man, who's name he'd learned was Charlie.

Whatever it was in the trees screeched, sounding a bit like a train.

Charlie summed up their feelings succinctly.

"Terrific."

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Wood didn't get much sleep that night. Actually, most of them didn't. No surprise there. They were huddled in tighter groups than before, often casting fearful glances at the jungle.

He stood closer to the jungle than any of them, his makeshift blade hanging loosely, easily in his hand. He wasn't entirely sure such a weapon would be of any use against something as big as that thing out there obviously was, but he had to try something if it came back.

Footsteps alerted him to someone approaching his position. He turned briefly. It was muttering boy, who was staring fixedly into the trees, his eyes wide. "You seem awfully calm." The boy said.

"Most predators are just like dogs. They get excited by fear." Wood answered.

"You deal with stuff like this often?"

"Not this big."

"So you a hunter then?"

"Something like that." He could tell that the young man was starting to relax. Apparently he'd needed someone to talk to. Wood looked at him more carefully. He looked about the same age as Xander, maybe a bit younger. He was skinny, with short dark blond hair. "Robin Wood. Ex-High School Principal."

"Daniel Reed. Novice Reporter."

"You should get some sleep Danny."

Reed gave a short laugh. "Yeah right. I mean, you're right. We've all had a big day. But I don't think I could sleep."

"Try anyway. I promise, if anything's coming, I'll give the alarm."

* * *

Eventually, sunrise came, and with it, a lessening of fear. Even though he knew that there was no reason to suspect that there was less danger in the daylight, Wood was no more immune to the relief that sunrise brought.

_And what a sunrise._ He thought. _Never seen one quite like it. If it weren't for the monster, this wouldn't be so bad._

Behind him, people were starting to discuss the events of the night before.

"Maybe it was a Dinosaur." A big guy suggested.

"I doubt that." Another said.

"Whatever it was, it wasn't natural."

"Yeah," came one reply, "It sounded like the Iron Giant or something."

"Isn't there an old Indian legend about a big spirit or something?" Daniel asked.

"What, the Wendigo?"

"Yeah that's it."

"Uhm, we're a few thousand miles south of Wendigo territory."

"Oh."

Wood turned from the ocean, wondering whether he should put in his two cents. Should he tell them he suspected it could be a demon? Maybe something _like_ the Wendigo? They'd probably just think he was crazy.

"Hey," the man from the day before was approaching him, "You get any sleep last night?"

"Little bit." Wood said. "You're the doctor right?"

"Yeah. Jack." Wood shook his hand. "Listen, I'm gonna go look for the cockpit, see if I can find the transceiver. If you're feeling up to it, I'd feel a lot better if someone were looking after things here."

Wood looked at him for a moment. The day before, Jack had been running all over the place, tending to the wounded. All the while, he'd heard later, with a wound of his own. And he'd never lost his head. Good, they'd need people like that in this situation. Meanwhile, Wood had walked around in a daze.

"Why ask me?" he said finally.

"I watched you for a bit last night. Everyone else was on the verge of panic when that thing came by, you weren't. You seem like a level headed guy."

Wood nodded. "I'll do what I can. Good luck out there." Just as Jack was turning away, Wood called to him; "Hey, if you see anything, _anything_, run."

* * *

Doctor Jack, Charlie, and Kate headed into the jungle, and Wood started doing what he could. He organized a group to start sorting through baggage, looking for individual people's bags, and piling all the unclaimed luggage together for future use. Once that was completed, he ducked into the shade created by the fallen wing and lay down.

The night before he'd been relieved by a young dark skinned man, and had managed to doze a bit, but like many, he'd been too worried to sleep. Now, his hand wandered again to the medallion hanging from his neck, brushing his thumb across the stone in the center.

* * *

_"Okay," Willow explained, handing the Medallion to Wood "It's done."_

_Wood nodded, looking from the necklace to the bags under the red head's eyes. "Have you slept at all?"_

_"Yes. No. A little. But these are really important, and besides it's not like I haven't pulled all nighters before, and don't worry I didn't use magic to keep myself awake, I used coffee and sugar which after a while just gave me a headache and if I stop talking I'll fall asleep so I'd better tell you how it works." She took a deep breath. "Rub the gemstone in the center, and my mystical glowy orb thingee-"_

_"Is that a technical term Will?" Xander asked._

_"My Orb of Remulsa will show us where you are and what's happening. Then with the help of our friendly neighborhood Devon Coven, we can have backup to you, or get you out of there lickety split. Night."_

_Kennedy caught her has she collapsed backwards. "I told her she should have paced herself." She said._

* * *

Four times now. This made four times he'd tried to use the "Slayer Signal" as Andrew had dubbed it. And nothing. He was still here. No help had arrived. He had a number of ideas why. The Orb had been smashed, either in a battle, or Andrew had stumbled into it. Willow and everyone else who knew how to use the damn thing were dead, or for whatever other reason, not able, or available to help. Or there was something about this Island that was blocking reception. In any case, no help was coming. They were on their own.

"Hey, Mr. Principal!"

He woke with a start. He hadn't meant to fall asleep. He shaded his eyes and saw the ace reporter standing over him. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh I don't know that anything's wrong per se," Daniel said. Thunder rumbled in the near distance. "Just thought you might want to seek better shelter before the weather turns nasty."

Soon, everyone was running for shelter. Wood and Daniel found themselves crammed under the wing, the biggest piece of debris, which therefore provided the best sanctuary against he storm. Wood watched as a few others merely huddled under a tarp. He couldn't help noticing the older bald man, who so far hadn't budged from his perch on the beach, was not seeking shelter against the storm. He was obviously enjoying the rain. As was the young man who'd taken over the watch from him the night before. He was at the edge of the crowd under the wing, his eyes closed.

Then it came. Their visitor from the night before was back, bellowing it's strange, train-like cry.

The survivors huddled closer together, and even the younger rain enthusiast retreated under the protective canopy. "Aw c'mon," he complained under his breath, "Don't make me fear the rain." One of the young ladies in the group wrapped her arms around his waist in a very familiar way.

Just like the night before, whatever it was merely made it's presence known, then receded into the forest. There seemed to be a collective sigh of relief, though Wood was worried.

"Hey," he asked the crowd in general, "Did Jack and the others get back yet?"

"Not yet." The big guy said. "Hope they're okay."

* * *

After maybe half an hour, the rain petered off, then stopped.

"So," a scruffy looking young man said, "What now?"

To Be Continued…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

When the rain petered off, Wood got back to work with the rest of the survivors. He started learning a few of the names, the bald man introduced himself as John Locke, the big guy, Hurley. He learned the names of the rain enthusiast and his lady friend; James and Lena Running Bear, a newlywed couple from Alaska.

Lena had managed to find her bag, which contained, among other things, a book about edible plants in the tropics.

"I bought it in Hawaii." She explained. "Could be we'll be here for a while. Couldn't hurt to know what's good to eat eh?"

Wood nodded in agreement. "Don't go too far into the tree line unless you have someone with you." He advised.

"Oh, no need to worry about that." She shuddered. "Reed was right about one thing this morning. That thing reminds me a lot of the Wendigo."

"You believe in the Wendigo?"

"Well I've never seen it," she said, "But back home when I was a kid the wind could sometimes sound pretty spooky. My brother told me it was the Wendigo hunting."

"Did it sound like this thing?" Wood asked seriously.

She looked at him askance, probably wondering if he really believed in evil spirits. "Not exactly. Just, you know, spooky."

A whistle from above caught her their attention and James stuck his head out of the leaves of the tree they were standing below.

"Lena," he said, "This what you meant?" holding onto the tree with one hand, and holding what looked like a kind of coconut in the other, he held it out for her inspection.

"Toss it down." She instructed.

Wood left them too it. Nice to see a couple like that.

* * *

_"So how do you want to do this?" Wood asked, staring at the building before them._

_"What, haven't you done this before?" Faith asked, a lop-sided grin on her face._

_"Sure, but not with you." He replied. His eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the entryway. "Looks like it could get ugly."_

_Faith shrugged. "Nothing we can't handle right?"_

_"Let's try not to resort to violence unless we absolutely have to." Robin reprimanded her._

_She laughed, linking her arm with his. "Hey c'mon, it's a movie theater. How tough could it be?"_

_Wood grinned. "How'd I let you talk me into this?"_

_"Me?" the prodigal Slayer protested. "What was all that about surprising me?"_

_"Dinner and movie was your idea."_

_"Okay yeah that's true. I only went on one real date. One that ended well anyway."_

_"Dinner and a movie?" he guessed._

_"Yeah. I was like, I dunno, 12."_

_Wood shook his head in dismay. "Back to basics. Gotcha."_

* * *

"Wood!" Michael was pelting down the beach, Walt close behind. "Wood!"

"What's wrong?" he asked, meeting them.

Michael held out a pair of handcuffs. "I think we've got trouble."

To be continued...


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Where'd you find these?" Wood asked quietly, taking the cuffs from Michael.

"I found them." Walt said. "I was looking for Vincent and-"

"They were by a seat from the plane." Michael cut in. "I think-"

"These could have come from anything." Wood said. "Could have been in someone's bag that burst or something."

"You really think that?" Michael asked.

"You think someone was wearing them?" Walt asked. "Like they were under arrest or something?"

"Son of a bitch, I knew it." Wood spun, not used to, and not liking being taken by surprise. The scruffy looking guy was looking at the cuffs with equal parts shock and anger. "I knew it!" he said again. With a quick look at the others he said; "I know who was wearin' em."

With that he stalked away, back towards the crash site.

Wood hurried to catch up to him, seeing him make a beeline for the Arabian man.

"Hey! Osama!"

The man he was addressing stopped his task of maintaining the signal fire and gaped. "What did you call me?"

"How'd you do it?" Scruffy demanded. "Huh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The target of Scruffy's ire said coldly.

"The hell you don't."

"Hey calm down." Wood said, grabbing Scruffy's arm. He tried to wrench it out of his grasp, but Robin merely held on tighter. "You don't know those cuffs were on him."

"The hell I don't." came the acid reply. "You wanna get your hands off me Kojak?"

"The name is Wood and that depends. Are you going to calm down?"

"Calm down? This son of a bitch crashed the plane!"

The Arabian man's face darkened even more and he decked Scruffy. The blow knocked both Scruffy and Wood off balance, allowing the former to pull his arm from Robin's grasp and shove him away.

Wood had been in many fights, had fought Vampires, Demons, even a few humans. But he'd never done so in sand before. He lost his balance and felt his head collide with something hard. Michael helped him rise just as Jack, Kate and Charlie arrived back on the scene.

"Tell everyone what you told me. Tell them that I crashed the plane. Go on, tell them!"

"The shoe fits, buddy."

"What is going on?" Jack asked. He glared briefly at Wood.

Wood shrugged. Hell he couldn't be everywhere at once. Besides, he brought his hand up to the back of his head and felt the point of impact. No blood. Good. Jack seemed to understand though, and nodded.

"My kid found these in the jungle." Michael said, handing the cuffs to Jack.

"This guy was sitting in the back row of business class the whole flight, never got up." Scruffy ranted. "Hands folded underneath a blanket. And for some reason, just pointing this out, the guy I saw next to him didn't make it."

"Thank you so much for observing my behavior."

"You don't think I saw them pull you out of line before we boarded?"

"They did what?" Reed asked, looking at the Arabian guy. Wood shot him a look.

"Don't you start jumping to conclusions."

"Right," Reed backed off, "Sorry."

"We found the transceiver but it's not working." Kate broke in. "Can anybody help?"

"Yes." The accused said. "I might be able to."

"Oh great, let's trust this guy." Scruffy said, exasperated.

"Hey, we're all in this together, man. Let's treat each other with a little respect." Hurly said.

"Shut up, lardo."

Wood stepped forward, glowering, but Jack was already there. "Hey. Give it a break."

"Whatever you say, Doc. You're the hero."

Scruffy stalked off, and Jack turned to Wood. "Turn around." He examined the back of Wood's head. "Doesn't look bad. Just a bruise."

Wood nodded. "No concussion?"

"Your pupils aren't dilated. What happened?"

"I'm not used to sand." Wood said simply.

"You guys found the cockpit?" Boone asked.

Jack nodded, looking around at the activity that had been going on since he'd left. Maybe Wood hadn't been able to break up the fight, but he'd apparently done quite well in other areas.

"Any survivors?" Boone pressed.

Jack hesitated. "No."

Wood looked at him carefully. There was something he wasn't telling them.

To be continued…


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_"Okay," Robin said, "That's the third time you've looked over my shoulder." He dropped his napkin to the table and sighed. "Are there Vampires at the bar?"_

_Faith looked for a fourth time over her date's shoulder. "No. No Vampires. But I'm pretty sure the guy with the eye patch trying to look inconspicuous is Xander."_

_Robin spun in his chair, surprised. Sure enough, Xander Harris was sitting at the bar. "What is he doing here?" he wondered aloud._

_"Playing chaperone?" Faith guessed. "I'll go ask him."_

_Robin quickly placed his hand on hers, stopping her. "No, I'll go ask him."_

_"What? Afraid I'm gonna use violence?" He gave her a narrow look. "Hey I don't always use violence." She protested. "Sometimes I use sex."_

_"I don't think either approach is warranted in this case." The former principal said. He sighed as he headed for the bar. He supposed this was to be expected. He was new to the fight really. Xander was one of the originals. He'd been in the thick of things for seven years, and Robin Wood had only been involved for, about a year now. He knew Faith and Xander had some past together. So he couldn't really say he was surprised that Xander had followed them._

_To the boy's credit, he did not seem to be surprised at having been found out._

_"You're not too good at this covert thing are you." Robin said, taking a seat next to the one eyed young man._

_"What's the point of being covert?" Xander said. "Unless you go to a biker bar, I kind of stand out." They were silent for a moment. "I suppose you're wondering why I'm here." Xander said finally._

_"No I know why you're here." Wood said._

_"You do?"_

_"Isn't it obvious?" Wood replied. "You're here to watch Faith's back. But Xander come on. She's a Slayer. You really think I could do anything she didn't want me to?"_

_Xander snickered. "Oh. Oh no. I'm not here to watch Faith's back Rob." He looked towards the table where Faith sat watching them, then turned back to him. "I'm here to watch yours."_

* * *

"Jack!" Wood called, hurrying after the doctor. "Jack!"

Jack turned and waited resignedly. "What's wrong?"

"You're not telling the whole story about the cockpit are you?"

Jack hesitated.

"Jack listen." Wood told him. "If we're going to survive long enough for a rescue to come, we've got to start trusting each other."

Jack looked hard at him for a moment, then seemed to deflate a bit. "You're right." He started walking again, slower this time. "I didn't want to start anybody panicking."

"I'm not one to panic Jack. Never have been."

"Okay, we found the cockpit, just like we said. But we did find one survivor. The pilot."

"The pilot's alive?" Wood exclaimed.

"No. Whatever that thing out there is killed him."

Wood swore quietly.

"The weird thing is, it didn't eat him, at least from what I could see. It just snatched him through a broken window in the cockpit, and killed him."

"There goes Hurley's Tyrannosaur theory."

"What?"

"Nothing. Is that it? Is that the big secret?"

"Not all of it." Jack sighed. "Before he died, the pilot told us that the plane was 1000 miles off course when it went down." Wood stared at him in shock. "They're looking for us in the wrong place."

To Be Continued…


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

For the hundredth time, Wood fingered the medallion he wore under his shirt. They were looking for them in the wrong place. He didn't know how the magic Willow used in these medallions worked, but he was pretty sure that the discrepancy of where they were, and where they were supposed to be wouldn't make much of a difference.

So what had gone wrong? Had something been done to the plane? Why? What was so special about this flight? Was there someone on board that was important? Was this because of him? He doubted it. He wasn't that important to the cause. His disappearance wouldn't put that big a crimp in Buffy's plans.

Suddenly, unintelligible words broke into his reverie. He turned from where he'd been staring out to sea, to see the Korean Man, attempting to speak to him. He was carrying a small airline tray filled with what looked to be fresh sushi.

Wood struggled to remember the tiny bit of Korean he knew. "Food?" he asked. "You, giving food?"

The man looked relieved, and nodded. "Yes," he said, still in Korean. "Food. Eat." He looked at Wood with a bit of new respect. Knowing even a bit of someone's language had sometimes had that effect in Wood's experience.

He looked at the selection. If he was going to trust sushi from anyone, it would be this guy. He took two of the proffered bits of food with thanks. The man introduced himself as Jin.

"Thank you Jin." Robin said. It was one of the few bits of Korean he knew well.

He felt a bit better, not only having something in his stomach (it wasn't much, but it was something), but knowing that yet another person on the island, especially one who otherwise kept himself rather aloof, was reaching out.

Because if they were going to survive, they needed to be able to trust each other.

* * *

"I'm sorry, what?" Robin asked Xander, thoroughly confused.

"I'm here to watch your back." the young man repeated. "I've been in your position. Well not precisely your position but..."

"You think Faith might try to hurt me?" It was possible she could do so by accident he supposed. Sex with a girl with super strength was risky in that regard.

Xander took a sip of his beer. "I think she might try to kill you."

* * *

Robin looked in amused surprise as Daniel Reed, took pictures of the wreckage and the survivors. "Is that your camera?" he asked.

"Yep." Daniel grinned. "Somehow it survived the landing." He took another picture of the area. "When we get rescued people will want to see these."

Robin nodded, his face carefully calm. How long were they supposed to keep it a secret? "Makes sense. You a photographer by trade?"

"Nah, just a hobby. Still, plane crash on a tropical island? I mean look at this." He showed him one of the pictures. Robin had to admit the photo of the fuselage was quite dramatic.

"Not bad." Over Daniel's shoulder, he spotted Sayid talking to Kate. "Excuse me."

He walked up the the two, Daniel close on his heels.

"We might be able to get a signal," the Arab man was saying. "If we go to high ground."

"How high?" Kate asked.

Sayid's answer was to simply look past her, to the mountain that loomed behind.

This time it was Daniel's turn to put everyone's thoughts into perfect vocality. "Woah."

To Be Continued...


End file.
